


and it's funny how lightning seems to bring out the very softest side of you

by nineteenohtwo



Category: Andi Mack (TV)
Genre: Friends to Lovers, House Party, M/M, One Shot, Practice Kissing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-02
Updated: 2019-04-02
Packaged: 2019-12-30 19:17:42
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,738
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18321569
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nineteenohtwo/pseuds/nineteenohtwo
Summary: "You need to find someone to practice with. Just find someone who isn’t that experienced either and kiss them. Then you both won’t have high expectations for each other and you can ease into it. And then you won’t be nervous next time you have the opportunity to kiss someone.”“But who?”Cyrus pondered it over and felt the blood rushing to his face. He sat up straight on the bed and bit his lip in a nervous habit he desperately needed to kick. He looked at TJ and tilted his head, trying to convey the message without actually having to say the words.“What?” TJ said, pausing his pacing to look at Cyrus’ weird behaviour, “Why are you looking at me like that?”Cyrus swiped his tongue over his bottom lip and looked away, “You know… I wouldn’t be… Uhm, opposed to helping out.”Practice kissing AU





	and it's funny how lightning seems to bring out the very softest side of you

**Author's Note:**

  * For [you_get_to_exhale_now_cyrus](https://archiveofourown.org/users/you_get_to_exhale_now_cyrus/gifts).



> bad language, title from a maisie peters song

“Andi, truth or dare?”

“Dare.”

“Uh,” Buffy drawled out, “go around the room and smell everybody’s armpits.”

“What? That’s fucking gross!” Andi said, leaning into Amber, “I’m not fucking doing that!”

“Yes, you are! Come on, I could always take it back and make you lick everybody’s feet instead.”

“ _That_ is gross.” Buffy scrunched up her nose in disgust and leaned into Marty, who fondly slung an arm around her.

“Fine,” Andi begrudgingly agreed and stuck her nose in Amber’s armpit, “on second thought, this isn’t that bad, you all have pretty good hygiene.”

Andi sat back down and scanned the room, picking the next victim. She briefly looked over at Cyrus, who looked nervous as hell, and decided to _not_ pick him, and instead decided to go for TJ.

“TJ! Truth or dare?”

“Truth.”

Andi mulled it over for a while before addressing him with a sly smirk.

“Who is… the last person you kissed?”

“Oh.” TJ mumbled, turning red and scratching his neck, “I, uh, I have never kissed anyone.”

“ _What?_ ”

“Oh, come on, we’re seventeen, it’s acceptable to not have kissed anyone yet.”

“Yeah of course, but it’s just surprising, you know,” Buffy said, “captain of the basketball team, mister popular, girl magnet…”

“ _Girl magnet?”_ Marty and TJ said in unison.

“Oh, let it go and move on with the game,” Buffy laughed, leaning back against the couch.

 

-

 

“I’m so tired,” Cyrus complained, throwing his backpack on TJ’s bed, “we should’ve never done a sleepover on a school night.”

“Come on, Cy, live a little,” TJ said, taking his History binder out of his backpack, “besides, it was Jonah’s eighteenth, we had to do something.”

“True,” Cyrus yawned, “doesn’t mean that I’m not ready to fall asleep at any moment now. I should have gone to bed right after truth or dare, that fucking scary movie we watched after kept me up all night, I-”

“Can I ask you something?” TJ abruptly cut Cyrus off in the middle of his rambling, clutching onto his history binder as if it was a lifeline.

“Of course, what’s up?” Cyrus asked, and put a cracker that had been halfway to his mouth back down.

TJ had complained about Cyrus leaving crumbs on his bed before, but Cyrus reasoned that he wouldn’t have to spill his own food on TJ’s bed if TJ fed him every once in a while.

“Do you… Uh, do you…” TJ rubbed his eyebrows and turned back around, finally putting his binder down on his desk, “Nevermind, it’s really stupid.”

“No, I want to hear it,” Cyrus said, standing up, his pack of crackers forgotten on TJ’s sheets, in favour of standing next to TJ, “what’s wrong?”

“Do you… Uh, do you think it’s embarrassing that I’ve never kissed anyone before?”

“What? No, of course not! It’s totally normal!”

“Don’t lie to me, Cy.”

“I’m not lying!” Cyrus said, gently pushing TJ down on the bed, “you’re seventeen and gay, it’s not unusual to not have exactly found anyone to kiss yet. Or like, even someone you want to kiss.”

“ _You_ have kissed someone.”

“Oh, come on, that was a girl. That barely counts.”

“It counts to me,” TJ said, looking down at the cracker in Cyrus’ hand, “also stop eating on my bed.”

“Don’t change the subject, TJ. What do you want to do about it?”

“How do you mean?”

Cyrus wrung his hands together and lied down on the bed, looking at the ceiling and thinking it over. TJ nervously paced up and down his room.

“Well, do you want to go to a party or something? Kiss a random person? Like, next week, at Jonah’s surprise party?”

“No, of course not!”

“ _Why not?_ ”

“What if I’m bad at it?”

“God, Teej. You can’t be good at it unless you practice.”

“What, on my hand?”

“ _No_ ,” Cyrus said, pinching the bridge of his nose, “you need to find someone to practice with. Just find someone who isn’t that experienced either and kiss them. Then you both won’t have high expectations for each other and you can ease into it. And then you won’t be nervous next time you have the opportunity to kiss someone.”

“But who?”

Cyrus pondered it over and felt the blood rushing to his face. He sat up straight on the bed and bit his lip in a nervous habit he desperately needed to kick. He looked at TJ and tilted his head, trying to convey the message without actually having to say the words.

“What?” TJ said, pausing his pacing to look at Cyrus’ weird behaviour, “Why are you looking at me like that?”

Cyrus swiped his tongue over his bottom lip and looked away, “You know… I wouldn’t be… Uhm, opposed to helping out.” When TJ didn’t immediately respond, he frantically started to explain further. “You know, then you can kiss someone next week and not be afraid. I’m sorry, it’s a dumb idea and I shouldn’t have suggested it, and-”

“ _No, no_ ,” TJ interrupted, feeling colour flush onto his cheeks, “yeah, sure, uhm… I’d like that, thank you.”

“So, uh, do we do this _now_ , or?”

“Yeah, sure,” TJ said and sat down on the bed, pulling his legs up and facing Cyrus, “so, what do I do?”

“Oh, God, I didn’t think that far,” Cyrus said, pulling his phone from his pocket, “let me google it.”

TJ pushed Cyrus’ hand holding his phone down, “Let’s just see what works, no?” He looked at him with big eyes, making Cyrus put his phone down next to him.

“Is this going to change anything between us?”

“No, I don’t think so,” TJ said, “I think we’re good enough friends to do something like this and not make it weird.”

“Yeah, sure,” Cyrus said, “so, do we just go for it?”

“Sure,” TJ said, closing the little space between them a little more, “do I come in or do you-”

“Let’s just meet in the middle.”

“Sure.”

Cyrus leaned forward and waited for TJ to do the same, wondering how the afternoon had come to this. He felt TJ’s warm breath on his face and felt his hair tickle his forehead when he leaned back a little.

“Did we close the door? Amber’s not gonna catch us, right?”

“Amber is at Andi’s and mom has a double shift, Cyrus. We’re alone,” TJ whispered, “last chance to back out.”

“I’m not backing out,” Cyrus said with a raised chin, looking TJ in the eye.

“Good, because neither am I,” TJ said and swiftly closed the space between them, crashing their lips together.

It wasn’t exactly a great kiss. Their heads were positioned awkwardly and their noses and teeth clashed when TJ unexpectedly went in for the kiss.

Cyrus pulled back a little to look at TJ, who was also scoping out his reaction.

“Alright?” TJ asked, looking all over Cyrus’ face for a sign of hesitance.

“Yeah, let me just-” Cyrus repositioned himself so he was sitting on his knees and looked down on TJ who didn’t for a second take his eyes off him. Cyrus gently grabbed TJ’s chin and held it in place as he went back in with a tilted head, firmly connecting their lips once again.

“Better?”

“Better.” TJ laughed breathily, pulling back from Cyrus and settling with his back against the wall. Cyrus sat down next to him, twiddling his thumbs.

“So…”

“So…” Cyrus repeated, “that happened.”

“It did,” TJ laughed, pushing their shoulders together, “thank you.”

“No need to thank me,” Cyrus said, “it was a lot better than it was with Iris. Now you can kiss someone next week, and you won’t be scared.”

“Yeah, sure,” TJ’s smile faltered, “kiss someone else.”

 

-

 

“You _what_?”

“I kissed TJ,” Cyrus said, popping a tater into his mouth, “practice, you know.”

“ _No, I don’t know,_ ” Buffy said, flabbergasted, while Andi opened and closed her mouth looking for the right words, but not finding them. “Why would you do that?”

“For _practice_. I said that he could kiss someone at a party, but he didn’t want to be bad at it.”

“Yeah but _why_ -” Andi started before Buffy shushed her by holding up a hand in her face.

“I don’t think we can explain it in any other way than the obvious.”

“The obvious?” Cyrus asked.

“Well yeah,” Buffy took a casual sip of her milkshake, “the obvious fact that you and TJ just _want_ to kiss each other.”

“ _What?_ I don’t want to kiss TJ!”

“Sure,” Buffy said, “so, when we go to Jonah’s birthday party next week, you wouldn’t have problem with him kissing anybody else?”

“No,” Cyrus said, even though he wasn’t so sure anymore, “I wouldn’t care.”

 

-

 

Cyrus, TJ, Amber, Marty and Buffy walked into Andi’s house, where she was already running around, frantically putting up decorations.

“Hi,” Bex said, opening the door, with Andi running around in the background, “we’re just heading out to give you all the space for the party.” Bowie appeared behind her and after making a bit of conversation, they said their goodbyes and left. A panicked Andi assigned them all separate tasks, leaving Cyrus and TJ to set up a photo booth together.

“Why does Jonah even get two parties?” TJ said, putting up a big white background, while Cyrus sat on the ground, putting tape on the back of big, gold letters spelling out ‘JONAH 18’.

“Because he’s Jonah Beck, of course,” Cyrus said, pulling off tiny bits of tape and putting them on the ‘A’, “he just wanted to do something small for his friends, but the Frisbee team and other friends of his have been bugging Andi to host a surprise party for him, so,” he shook his head and pulled another letter out of the box, sarcastically shaking it, “here we are!” He watched Andi scold Marty for putting up the balloons the wrong way and shook his head, “She stresses too much.”

“Tell me about it,” TJ said, thinking back to about fifteen minutes ago, when Andi ripped him a new asshole for dropping a box of photos. “So, are you excited for the party?”

“Not really,” Cyrus shrugged, “kinda just want to drink a bit, play some beer pong and go home. You?”

“Eh, same,” TJ said, stepping back and admiring his handiwork, “hand me the ‘J’, I’ll hang it up.”

“Really?” Buffy’s voice behind them yelled, “You’re not going to put your new knowledge to the test?”

“Maybe I will, Driscoll,” TJ yelled back, looking at Cyrus and mouthing ‘ _you told them?’,_ while Cyrus felt his stomach drop.

Right. TJ was going to kiss other people. That’s what it had all been about.

 

-

 

“Fuck the dealer.”

“What the hell is fuck the dealer?”

“Alright,” Buffy said, shuffling her deck of cards, “it’s actually my favourite. So, you pick a card, two through ace, and I look if you’re right. If you’re right the first time I drink four sips, if you’re wrong I say higher or lower. If you’re right then, I take two sips. If you’re wrong, you drink the difference. Like if you say six, and it’s four, you drink two sips.” The group they were playing with all seemed like they were following, even though it was kind of hazy. Andi and Amber were sitting on the sofa, not participating but watching in amusement. The rest of the people playing were people Cyrus didn’t know very well, from Jonah’s Frisbee team, or from his class.

Cyrus slowly nodded, trying to keep up with all of the rules, while watching Jonah pour beer into red solo cups.

“If the group is wrong three times in a row, I pass the deck along.”

“Cool, cool,” TJ said, bumping Cyrus’ shoulder, leaning into him and whispering in his ear, “I’m not following at all, you’re gonna have to explain it to me.”

“TJ! Pay attention!” Buffy hissed, looking at the first card, “alright, Cyrus. Guess.”

“Five.”

“Higher.”

“Seven.”

“Too bad, it’s a ten. Drink three.”

“This is going to be a long night.” Cyrus whispered in TJ’s ears, before taking three gulps of his lukewarm beer.

 

-

 

“TJ!”

“Cyrus!”

“Hey! Oh, sorry, didn’t mean to interrupt, who’s this?”

“Michael,” a tall blonde boy wearing a college basketball hoodie stuck out his hand for Cyrus to shake, “I was just discussing the University of Michigan’s basketball program with tall, blonde and handsome over here.”

“Cyrus,” Cyrus said, shaking Michaels hand and looking between them, “so what brings you to this party?”

“Jonah’s my cousin,” Michael said with a bored look, “I’m on break and don’t have anything better to do.”

“And you go to Michigan? Cool, how’s the-”

“You know what? I could use another beer.” Michael said, interrupting Cyrus, “TJ, you want to come get one?”

“Sure,” TJ said, and smiled at Cyrus, “be right back.”

“Nice to meet you, Calum,” Michael said, before grabbing TJ’s hand and pulling him away.

Cyrus looked at his beer-soaked shoes, trying to comprehend what had just happened, when Andi poked him in the cheek.

“Hey!”

“Hey.” Cyrus mumbled.

“Oh god, you look sad.” She grabbed his cheeks and pushed their foreheads together, “what’s wrong, baby Cy?”

“Nothing.”

“Oh boy, what has TJ done now?” Andi said, and looked at her watch when he didn’t answer her, “alright, it’s a little early for this, but your pouting leaves me no choice. It’s time.”

“For what?”

“Shots!”

 

-

 

“You did a really nice job with the party,” Cyrus said, looking up at the sky, huddled together with Andi on the backyard porch. “I really enjoyed it.”

“Sure, that’s why we’ve been sitting on the porch, drinking Jonah’s mom’s cherry wine for an hour now.”

“You can go back inside, if you want, I don’t mind,” Cyrus said, clutching the near-empty bottle, “I just don’t want to see TJ in there, making out with _Michael_.”

“You say that name as if it tastes bad.”

“That’s ‘cos it does,” Cyrus slurred, taking a swig out of his bottle. “You go inside and find Amber, I know you want to.”

“Well yeah,” Andi smiled at the thought of her girlfriend, “but I want to be here for you too.”

“Too bad,” Cyrus said, “I’m gonna be fine here, go you.”

“Are you sure?” Andi said, standing up from the porch.

“Yeah, sure,” Cyrus smiled, “I’ll be right behind you. Just want to be alone for a while.”

Andi crouched down to ruffle his hair, and walked back into the party through the back door.

Cyrus lied down on the ground and looked at the sky, trying to find some constellations he knew, but couldn’t find any in his clouded state of mind, when he heard the door open up again.

“Go back inside, Andi, I’ll be fine here.”

“I’m not Andi.”

“TJ!” Cyrus said, and sat up straight, “What are you doing out here?”  

“That’s rich coming from you,” TJ scoffed, “I’ve been looking for you for over an hour.”

“Well, I thought you and Michael would like some privacy.”

“Me and _Michael_?” TJ spat out, “Why would I like privacy with that self-aggrandizing asshole? He talked about his lay-up technique for fifteen minutes straight! I barely escaped with my life.”

“Oh,” Cyrus said, “I just thought you wanted to find someone to make out with, now that you don’t have to worry about being bad at it.”

TJ grabbed Cyrus’ hand and interlaced their fingers, gently squeezing it to make Cyrus look up at him. “Trust me. There’s no one inside that house right now that I want to kiss.”

Cyrus pulled his legs up and faced TJ, who was still standing. “Oh, really?”

“Yeah, really,” TJ raised his eyebrows at him and sat down on his knees, reminiscent of the position they had been in only days earlier. “Want to give this another go?”

“Sure,” Cyrus let out a small sigh when their lips touched again, making TJ pull back and tilt his head.

“Been wanting to do that again?” Cyrus nodded with flushed cheeks, making TJ dive back in swiftly. “Good, so have I.”

They kissed in silence for a good while, before Cyrus pulled back and cuddled into TJ.

“Want to go home?”

“If we can practice some more.”

“We can practice any time you want to, don’t worry,” TJ laughed and pulled Cyrus up by the hand. “You can teach me everything you know.”

 

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday dear theooooo, this is a month too late xxx love u
> 
> find me on tumblr, at [nineteenohtwo](https://nineteenohtwo.tumblr.com/), come say hi, yell a bit, tell me what you thought
> 
> leave a comment if you'd like, they always make my day :)


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